Part 4

When the United States became an independent nation it was necessary to have a coinage system of its own. In 1792 a mint was established in Philadelphia to coin money for the United States government. All of our money is not now made in Philadelphia. The paper currency is made in Washington, and there are mints for the coinage of gold, silver, and copper in San Francisco, Denver, and New Orleans as well as in Philadelphia.

A visit to the Philadelphia mint is most interesting. Visitors are conducted through the many rooms of this great money factory and are shown the successive processes through which the gold, silver, nickel, and copper must pass before it becomes money.

We first see the metal in the form of bars or bricks. In another room we find men at work melting the gold and mixing with it copper and other metals to strengthen it. Coins of pure gold would wear away very rapidly, and so these other metals are added. The prepared metal is cast into long strips, about the width and thickness of the desired coins. In still another room these strips are fed into a machine which punches out round pieces of the size and weight required. These disks are then carefully weighed and inspected, after which they are taken to the coining room to receive the impression of figures and letters which indicates their value. One by one the blank disks are dropped between two steel dies. The upper die bears the picture and lettering which is to appear upon the face of the coin, and the lower, that which is to appear on the reverse side. As the disk lies between them the two dies come together, exerting an enormous pressure upon the cold metal. The pressure is then removed, and the bright disk drops from the machine, stamped with the impression which has changed this piece of metal into a coin of the United States. All coins are made in much the same way.

In our brief visit we see many wonderful machines for counting, weighing, and sorting the thousands of coins which are daily produced in this busy place. At every step we are impressed with the great precautions taken to safeguard the precious materials handled.

The old parts of Philadelphia are even more interesting than the mint, because of their historic associations. Within the distance of a few squares one may visit famous buildings whose very names send thrills of pride through the heart of every good American.

Old Christ Church, whose communion service was given by England's Queen Anne in 1708, is perhaps the most noted of Philadelphia's historic churches. In this old church Benjamin Franklin worshiped for many years, and when he died he was buried in its quaint churchyard. And here too George Washington and John Adams worshiped when Philadelphia was the capital city.

Carpenters' Hall and Independence Hall ought to be known and remembered by every boy and girl in America. When the Massachusetts colonists held the Boston Tea Party, England undertook to punish Massachusetts by closing her chief port. This meant ruin to Boston. All the English colonists in America were so aroused that they determined to call a meeting of representatives from each colony, to consider the wisest course of action and how to help Massachusetts. It was in Carpenters' Hall that this first Continental Congress met, in September, 1774. The building was erected in 1770 as a meeting place for the house carpenters of Philadelphia--hence its name.

On Chestnut Street stands the old statehouse, which is called Independence Hall because it was the birthplace of our liberty. Here it was that, when all hope of peace between the colonies and England had been given up, the colonial representatives met in 1776 in the Continental Congress and adopted the Declaration of Independence, which declared that England's American colonies should henceforth be free and independent. While the members of Congress discussed the Declaration and its adoption, throngs packed the streets outside, impatiently waiting to know the result. At last the great bell rang out--the signal of the joyous news that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted.

Independence Hall was built to be used as a statehouse for the colony of Pennsylvania. The old building has been kept as nearly as possible in its original condition and is now considered "A National Monument to the Birth of the Republic." This sacred spot is under the supervision of the Sons of the American Revolution and is used as the home of many historic relics. Among these may be found the Liberty Bell, which hung in the tower of the statehouse for many years. It was later removed from the tower and placed on exhibition in the building. It has made many journeys to exhibitions in various cities, such as New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Charleston, Boston, St. Louis, and San Francisco. The old bell is now shown in a glass case at the main entrance to Independence Hall.

On Arch Street, not far from Independence Hall, is the little house where it is claimed the first American flag was made by Betsy Ross.

For ten years, from 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. In this city Washington and Adams were inaugurated for their second term as president and vice-president, and here Adams was inaugurated president in 1797.

Philadelphia to-day is a great city: great in industry, great in commerce, and great in near-by resources. Every street of the old part of the town is rich in historic memories. William Penn dreamed of a magnificent city, and the City of Brotherly Love is worthy of her founder's dream.

=PHILADELPHIA=

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over 1,500,000 (1,549,008).

Third city in rank according to population.

Place of great historic interest:

Founded by William Penn. Home of Benjamin Franklin. First Continental Congress met here in 1774. Declaration of Independence signed here in 1776. Capital of the nation from 1790 to 1800. First United States mint located here.

A great industrial and commercial center.

Ranks third in the country as a manufacturing city.

Principal industries:

Leads the world in the making of woolen carpets. Has the largest locomotive works in the United States. Manufactures woolen and worsted goods. Ranks high in printing and publishing, the refining of sugar, and shipbuilding.

Deep-water communication with the sea.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. When, how, and by whom was the site of Philadelphia acquired?

2. Compare the city of 1683 with that of to-day.

3. How does Philadelphia rank in size and manufactures among the great cities of the United States?

4. Name several advantages which have helped to make the city a great industrial and commercial center.

5. What are the leading exports of the city?

6. Name some of the important industries of Philadelphia.

7. Tell what you can of Philadelphia's great iron and steel works.

8. Tell something of the history and the present importance of printing in Philadelphia.

9. Give some interesting facts about the city's great park.

10. State briefly some of the things which may be seen in a visit to the mint.

11. What events of great historical interest have taken place in Carpenters' Hall and Independence Hall?

ST. LOUIS

Soon after Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States, he bought from France the land known as Louisiana for $15,000,000. This sum seemed a great deal of money for a young nation to pay out, but the Louisiana Purchase covered nearly 900,000 square miles and extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. So when one stops to think that the United States secured the absolute control of the Mississippi and more than doubled its former area at a price less than three cents an acre, it is easier to understand why Jefferson bought than why France sold.

When Louisiana became part of the United States in 1803, St. Louis was a straggling frontier village, frequented mostly by boatmen and trappers. It had been established as a trading post back in 1764 by a party of French trappers from New Orleans, and had, from the first, monopolized the fur trade of the upper Mississippi and Missouri River country. Here hunters and trappers brought the spoils of distant forests. Here the surrounding tribes of Indians came to trade with the friendly French. Here countless open boats were loaded with skins and furs and then floated down the Mississippi.

Notwithstanding this flourishing trade, the growth of the settlement was slow. In 1803 the population numbered less than one thousand, made up of French trappers and hunters, a few other Europeans and Americans, and a considerable number of Indians, half-breeds, and negro slaves.

But as soon as Louisiana belonged to the United States, a new era began in the West. Emigrants from the Eastern states poured over the Appalachian Mountains. St. Louis lay right in the path of this overland east-to-west travel. From here Lewis and Clark started, in 1804, on their famous exploring trip of nearly two years and a half, up the Missouri River, to find out for the country what Louisiana was like. It was here that emigrants headed for the Oregon country stopped to make final preparations and lay in supplies. The remote trading post of the eighteenth century was suddenly transformed into a wide-awake bustling town.

Furs were now no longer the only article of trade. The newly settled Mississippi valley was producing larger crops each year. Because of the poor roads, overland transportation to the markets on the Atlantic was out of the question, and trade was dependent on the great inland waterways. Early in the century, keel boats and barges carried the products of field and forest down the Mississippi. Then came the arrival of the first steamboat, the real beginning of St. Louis' great prosperity, working wonders for this inland commerce whose growth kept pace with the marvelous development of the rich Middle West.

St. Louis, lying on the west bank of the Mississippi, between the mouths of the Ohio and Missouri rivers and not far from the Illinois, became the natural center of this north-and-south river traffic. By 1860 it was the most important shipping point west of the Alleghenies.

Meanwhile railroad building had begun in the West. Ground was broken in 1850 for St. Louis' first railway, the Missouri Pacific. Other roads were begun during the next two years. In a short time the whole country was covered with a network of railroads, and a change in the methods of transportation followed. The steamboats were unable to compete with their new rivals in speed--a tremendous advantage in carrying passengers and perishable freight--and their former importance quickly grew less.

St. Louis lost nothing by the change. Many of the cross-continent railroads, following the old pioneer trails, met here. To-day more than twenty-five railroads enter the city, connecting it with the remotest parts of the United States as well as with Canada and Mexico.

St. Louis now has about 700,000 inhabitants and occupies nearly 65 square miles of land, which slopes gradually from the water's edge to the plateau that stretches for miles beyond the western limits of the city. The city is laid out in broad straight streets, crossing each other at right angles wherever possible and numbered north and south from Market Street.

The shopping district lies mainly between Broadway,--the fifth street from the river,--Twelfth Street, Pine Street, and Franklin Avenue. The financial center is on Fourth Street and Broadway, while Washington Avenue, between Fourth and Eighteenth streets, is one of the greatest "wholesale rows" in the West.

Besides its public schools--which include a teachers' college--and private schools, St. Louis has two higher institutions of learning, Washington University and St. Louis University.

Among the most important public buildings in the business section are the municipal court building, the city hall, the courthouse, and the public library.

The St. Louis Union Station, used by all railroads entering the city, is one of the largest and finest stations in the world. Pneumatic tubes connect it with the post office and the customhouse, while underground driveways and passages for handling bulky freight, express, and mail matter radiate from it in all directions.

Almost directly west of the business section, on the outskirts of the city, lies Forest Park, the largest of St. Louis' many recreation grounds. It covers more than thirteen hundred acres of field and forest land, left largely in a natural state. Here is the City Art Museum, which was part of the Art Palace of the world's fair held in St. Louis in 1904 to celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.

The beautiful Missouri Botanical Garden, generally known as Shaw's Garden, is open for the use of the public. Compton Hill Reservoir Park, on the South Side, though small, is one of the finest in the city. Its water tower and basins are a part of the municipal water system, costing more than $30,000,000. The city water is pumped from the Mississippi River and purified as it passes into great settling basins.

Though St. Louis' attractive houses are found almost everywhere outside the strictly business quarters, the real residence section has gradually been growing toward Forest Park, and many of the city's business men have built homes in the suburbs beyond the western limits of the city. One of these suburbs, University City, bids fair to become America's most beautiful residence town.

Unlike most of our large cities, St. Louis has no sharply defined factory district. Its manufacturing establishments are distributed over nearly the whole city. An important part of its manufacturing interests centers on the eastern bank of the Mississippi in the city's Illinois suburbs.

The industrial development of these Illinois suburbs was greatly increased by the opening of the Eads Bridge in 1874. Before this time there had been no bridge connection over the Mississippi. Passengers and freight ferries had plied regularly between St. Louis and her suburbs across the river, but there were seasons when floating ice made the river impassable, sometimes cutting off communication between the two shores for days.

The Eads Bridge is 6220 feet long and is so built that the railroad tracks cross it on a level lower than the carriage drives and foot paths. With its completion, communication between opposite sides of the river became as easy as between different parts of the city.

Other bridges have since been built. In 1890 the Merchants Bridge, used solely by railroads, was built across the Mississippi three miles to the north of Eads Bridge, and now there is the McKinley Bridge between the two. In addition to these the city is building a bridge which, when completed, will be open to traffic without toll charges.

Among the Illinois suburbs thus brought into closer touch with the western side of the river are East St. Louis,--a growing city of about 75,000,--Venice, Madison, Granite City, and Belleville. Being principally manufacturing communities, these cities contribute in no small degree to St. Louis' importance as an industrial center.

St. Louis' importance, however, is mainly due to the city's favorable location at the heart of one of the world's richest river valleys. The vast natural resources of the Middle West are at her command. Raw materials of every kind abound almost at her door. Missouri ranks high as an agricultural and mining state. Its position in the great corn belt makes hog raising a highly profitable industry. The prairies to the north furnish extensive grazing areas for cattle. The Ozark Mountains to the southwest afford excellent pasturage for sheep and yield lumber as well as great quantities of lead, zinc, and other minerals. In addition, the state has large deposits of soft coal, while only the Mississippi separates St. Louis from the unlimited supply of the Illinois coal fields. As a result, the cost of manufacturing is low and the city's many and varied industries thrive. Chief among these is the manufacture of boots and shoes. Though this business is comparatively young in the West, St. Louis already ranks among the three leading footwear-producing cities of the country, turning out over $50,000,000 worth of boots and shoes yearly. Most of these are of the heavier type made for country trade, but the output of finer footwear is steadily increasing.

Next in importance are the tobacco, meat-packing, and malt-liquor industries. St. Louis is one of the leading cities in the country in the manufacture of tobacco. The meat-packing establishments, including those in East St. Louis, hold fourth place among America's great packing centers. Its mammoth breweries lead the country in the output of beer. Flour mills, foundries, and sugar refineries also do an immense business. Street and railroad cars, stoves of all kinds, paints, oils, and white lead are made in scores of factories, while hundreds of other industries flourish in the city, making it one of the greatest workshops in the United States.

Important as St. Louis is as a manufacturing city, it is even more noted as a distributing center, its location making it the natural commercial metropolis of the Mississippi valley. It markets not only its own manufactures but products which represent every section of the country. The vast territory to the west and southwest depends almost entirely on St. Louis for its supply of dry goods and groceries. Other staples are boots and shoes, tobacco, hardware, timber, cotton, breadstuffs, cattle, and hogs.

In the handling of furs St. Louis leads the cities of the world. She also holds a high place among the great grain markets. In this country her annual receipts of corn, wheat, and oats are exceeded only by those of Chicago and Minneapolis. Shipments of grain and breadstuffs to Central and South America, Cuba, Great Britain, and Germany constitute the city's leading exports.

As a live-stock market it is no less important. The National Stockyards, located on the Illinois side of the river, contain several hundred acres. Though packing houses and slaughtering houses occupy some of this land, the main part is covered with sheds, pens, and enclosures for the reception and sale of live animals. Millions of cattle, hogs, and sheep are handled here every year. St. Louis also buys and sells hundreds of thousands of horses and mules, being the largest market for draft animals in the world.

Just as the frontier trading post of the eighteenth century grew into the thriving river port of the nineteenth, so the river port of the nineteenth century has developed into one of the leading railroad and commercial centers of the twentieth. And the fourth city of America in size is now St. Louis.

=ST. LOUIS=

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), nearly 700,000 (687,029).

Fourth city according to population.

Well located; center of the Mississippi valley, between the mouths of the Missouri and Ohio rivers.

Important shipping point by rail and water.

A great railroad center.

The leading market in the world for furs and draft animals.

One of the greatest boot-and-shoe-manufacturing centers.

One of the chief markets in the United States for grain, flour, and live stock.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Why did Jefferson buy the country included in the Louisiana Purchase?

2. Give a brief account of the Louisiana Purchase; from whom purchased, the cost, the territory included.

3. Tell what you know of St. Louis before the Louisiana Purchase.

4. What brought about the sudden and rapid growth of St. Louis after the purchase?

5. What effect did the railroads have upon St. Louis' water transportation? Why?

6. Describe the St. Louis Union Station.

7. What three bridges were built across the Mississippi at St. Louis, and why?

8. To what does St. Louis owe her importance as an industrial center?

9. In what lines does St. Louis lead the world?

10. Name some of the products sent to St. Louis from the neighboring country.

11. What are some of her most important industries?

12. Name some of the things which St. Louis supplies to other sections of the country.

13. In what business has St. Louis held an important place from its beginning?

14. By consulting a map, find what great railroad systems run to St. Louis.

BOSTON

Let us take a trip to New England and visit Boston. Boston is New England's chief city in size, in population, in historic interest, and in importance. It is the capital of Massachusetts and the fifth city in size in the United States.

If we were going to visit some far-away cousins whom we had never seen, we should surely want to know something about their age, their appearance, and their habits. Would it not be just as interesting to find out these things about the city we are to see on our journey?

In the early days the Indians called the district where Boston now stands Shawmut, or "living waters." The first white man to come to Shawmut was William Blackstone, a hermit who made his home on the slope of what is now Beacon Hill. Though Blackstone liked to be alone, he was unselfish. So when he heard that the settlers of a Puritan colony not far away were suffering for want of pure water, he went to their governor, John Winthrop, "acquainted him with the excellent spring of water that was on his land and invited him and his followers thither." Blackstone's offer was gladly accepted. The Puritans purchased Shawmut from the Indians and in 1630 began their new settlement, which they named Boston in honor of the English town which had been the home of some of their leading men.

Originally Boston was a little irregular peninsula of scarcely 700 acres, entirely cut off from the mainland at high tide. It did not take the colonists long, however, to outgrow these narrow quarters. They soon filled in the marshes and coves with land from the hills. They spread out over two small islands and made them part of Boston. Then, one by one, they took in neighboring settlements. And from this start Boston has grown, until to-day it has an area of about 43 square miles and a population of nearly 700,000.